[Are you OK Bethany? I'm assuming everything is all right since you experienced seven moments of bliss, three of which came from Enoch's host and a fourth when Rahab's host joined in too,] said Naomi. It was then Bethany realised what moments of bliss were, orgasms; as she drifted to sleep her head laid on Cain's shoulder, her arm across his chest as she held Toni's hand.
Chapter 34
Capturing Amazons
The following morning during their planning meeting, Violetta asked about the travel-post, had anyone seen or come across its location. Lesley sent a group message for the Amazons to read, less than one minute later there were seven replies, each one said the travel-post was in the castle's basement, near the room storing the wine and spirits.
Lesley, Violetta and fifty Amazons travelled to the basement in the castle, so Violetta could bless the travel-post for use by Cybele's people. After Violetta blessed the travel-post she said goodbye to Lesley and gave her a sisterly hug, and she waved to the fifty Amazons. Touching the travel-post, she vanished from sight and travelled to Petrabele. Bethany came up with an idea so people could know when the travel-post had been used, she made an enchanted disc. The disc was placed in the travel-post room and was linked to a small gong which rang when somebody entered the castle using the travel-post.
"I am going to place the disc in the room where the travel-post is located, any traveller entering the room will activate the disc and ring the arrival gong in the castle guard room," Bethany said to Cain as she finished her work in Bounty.
Daphne used her Geomancer skill and sealed the travel room to the rest of the castle's basement, and made a new staircase which exited next to the new guardroom on the first floor. Toni arranged for the town's enlarged militia to place ten men on duty in the guardroom at any one time.
Daphne made a sealing block for the staircase to the travel room. They could use the block should unwelcome troops attack the guards. The guards would be able to pull a lever in the guardroom, the block would be released and would block part of the room with the travel-post and the staircase. The militia would keep it guarded until a Geomancer came and moved the blockage.
By lunchtime with all the planning and tasks completed they went to Cybele's temple. As they approached the temple Toni realised that in Pyrgadikian the temple to Cybele was a small affair, not much larger than a six hundred square foot dwelling.
Toni noticed that Cybele's temple and all the temples were of a similar size as they walked down temple row. They passed temples to Ares, Hestia, Pontus and Athena whose temple like in Pappabele was next to Cybele's. Cain handed the bronze quest token to the high priestess for completing Cybele's quest of clearing the castle, freeing the town and killing the Pirate King, Odissemus. A flurry of pop-up messages flashed across all the group HUDs, Cain again received a message regarding the Amazons saying they had all increased their individual levels.
"Joseph, what are we to do with Circe? Is she going to become another of our concubines who we will leave behind to defend Pyrgadikian?" Bethany asked. Toni agreed with the question and said so to Cain.
^T^ Cain, I think Circe would be a good, strong, NPC-slash-EI who can support Cybele and Athena here in the Greek zone. I know it is not something you or I want, but for the system it will provide additional computing power. Plus, we get more babies to spoil. ^
^C^ You are right, it is not something either of us would choose in the real world, here though, it crazily makes sense. We will have to see what Cybele thinks, does she want strong females married to me, running the show? ^
^T^ Already done, while you were respawning and having fun with Bethany. Cybele's high priestess came to the castle, and Cybele is the one who suggested Circe becoming a concubine. As we are here in the temple, we can ask the high priestess to bless our union like we did for Suzanna. ^
They headed back to the castle, Cain was surrounded by his wives and their new concubine, Circe. Another circle of women, the Amazons protected them all. A young man in a messenger outfit ran toward them and he was shouting for Joseph, "Message for Joseph, I have a message for Joseph." The Amazons let the youth through their cordon and Daphne took the scroll while Cain tipped the messenger with a Drachma. As the messenger left, Daphne read the proffered scroll, she said, "This message scroll lets you know they have sighted the Pirate King's fleet, it is three hours from docking."
"OK, temple on hold, I'm sorry Circe, we will have to wait until we free those held captive by the pirates," said Cain. As they made for the harbour, Cain was told while he and Bethany waited to respawn, Toni managed to tie their fleet of boats up in the small harbour. As they walked to the harbour and shared ideas, they decided on subterfuge and bluff to deal with the pirates. Sophie had the rescued crews pretend to be pirates or dockers. Toni and Lesley organised a majority of the Amazons, and packed them in tight into the hidden holds of their four ships, tied to the dock.
Cain stood on the ramp leading to the dock and used his magnify sight skill, he counted seventeen ships of the pirate fleet, as they limped back into the port of Pyrgadikian. Scars from the battle against the Macedonian fleet were obvious to any observer. There were twelve Triremes and five Penteconters, each bore signs of heavy fighting, being damaged in some way or other.
Arrows covered most ships and some looked like sailing hedgehogs, there were signs of burning and holes in the large sails from rocks thrown by catapults. One Trireme had a hole above the waterline where a ship's bronze ram had pierced its flank. Another Trireme was lagging behind the rest, the mast and the front of the boat were blackened from fire. As the lead ship neared the dock, Cain could hear the shouted command, the Trireme rowers shipped oars.
Depending upon the flow of the sea the helmsman turned the Trireme alongside the dock, banging inelegantly into the wooden piles. A large hairy bear of a man, tanned from his life at sea shouted for someone to throw a line from the dock for tying up.
One of the dock workers, a former oar slave, threw the line, along with six more workers they helped pull the Trireme up to the dock. The remaining Triremes tied up at the buoys fifty yards from the dock. A flurry of small boats rushed over so the pirates could get to land. Toni messaged the Amazons hidden on their galley's to begin their attack.
As the large hirsute pirate jumped to the dock he bellowed for the pirate in charge, nobody came. Sophie, Daphne and Cain stepped out from where they were watching the proceedings, they walked toward the end of the dock and the still shouting pirate.
"Who the blazes are you? Where is Odissemus' toad face representative? Why the Hades would you willingly walk with two Amazons, we've had to bind all our remaining Amazons, they turned on us as we rowed back. We had to kill over a hundred of them to bring them into line," The pirate said.
Sophie spoke when they were five paces apart. She told the hairy pirate the town was under new management, and pointed to Cain, "There are fees to dock here now, fees you have to pay, pirate or not."
"Fee's, what are you talking about you stupid cow, pirates don't pay fees, and we're bloody pirates who own this city. Men, there is something fishy going on here. Let's take back our city, Odissemus will reward us," bellowed the hairy pirate. Cain stood firm and said, "You men do not want to do this, hand over your weapons and surrender. Your Pirate King, Odissemus, is dead."
Forty pirates swarmed over the side of the Trireme and ran toward the pirate who still shouted at Cain, Sophie and Daphne, he said, "You can stuff your fees where a fish stuffs its purse, those lies about about Odissemus will get you know where."
"We didn't tell you what the fees were," replied Daphne, smiling as she spoke. "The fees are your lives and we take the ships, oar slaves and Amazons. We free them so they can go hunt pirate scum like you," Daphne finished as she pulled her gladius and attacked the pirate who was half as large as she was.
The pirate was slow in drawing his Xiphos as his size always terrified his opponents, he looked down at the smiling face of Daphne as she pulled her gladius out of his
gut. His intestines followed the Xiphos which dropped from his hand as he desperately tried to hold back his intestines, as they coiled around his Xiphos on the dock planking.
With the huge pirate dead or dying, Cain and Sophie rushed after Daphne who was cutting her way through the pirates who charged up the dock. Six minutes of hand to hand fighting, Daphne had received two near-fatal wounds, the large Heamna potion she used restored her health. Sophie used a small Heamna while Cain was unmarked even though being covered in copious amounts of pirate blood and pieces of skin and organs.
While Sophie, Daphne and Cain stomped the forty pirates on the dock, the Amazons on Toni’s message swam from their hiding place. They swarmed the boats and removed all the pirates from their fleet, then freed four hundred and ten Amazons, two thousand three hundred oar-slaves. Together both groups killed two hundred and eighty-six pirates. Cain dismissed his pop-up message as he spoke to Toni.
The Amazons freed from the pirate ships on hearing from their sister Amazons they were now freed and were needed by their new Lord, Joseph. Daphne arranged transport and soon the little ships around the docks were bringing the freed slaves and Amazons to the dock, the dead pirates, NPCs and players alike returned to Forsaken or awaited a twenty hour respawn.
They brought all those that they freed through the town to the castle grounds. Toni arranged for the merchants in the town to provide food, drink and clothing for the former slaves, using money taken from the castle coffers. Lesley arranged for all the temples in Pyrgadikian to send their high priests or priestess, offering spiritual support to the former oar-slaves.
Athena's high priestess came, she only supported the Amazons as the male gods did not want female warriors. Cybele's high priestess was there too, she was looking to pick up slaves who didn't want to follow the male gods or Athena who was more for females.
Messengers
In the morning after killing the remainder of Odissemus' pirates and freeing Amazons and oar-slaves, Cain checked his own stats and the DreamBabes' stats. He messaged every one of his wives and asked them to ensure they had distributed all their recent points.
The following month was hectic for Cain and his women, the travel-post came in handy as they checked upon their children each week. Cain and Toni spoke with Suzanna every second day from Cybele's temple and Cain and Circe spoke to Myrina and Areto every third day.
Of the two thousand three hundred oar-slaves, two thousand and fifty-six made the decision and stayed in Pyrgadikian. Of those, three hundred and sixty-two made a choice to follow Cybele; two hundred and eighteen selected Athena.
Daphne used the materials from Cybele and Athena's temples and built a larger joint temple inside the castle grounds. Their former temple sites were now a garden of freedom. With the growth of Pyrgadikian the town employed one hundred and thirty-five of the former oar-slaves, training them to join the militia. The farms in the local area had a great influx of able-bodied workers, helping the farms increase their production feeding the larger town.
Circe fell pregnant three weeks after being freed from the tower, and all of Cain's women spoiled her, even Suzanna visited every third day using the travel-post. With their own children a staggering thirteen months old, Cain listened to Toni as she asked him to wait until Circe had her twins. Looking deep into her eyes, Cain knew he would never refuse her requests, even if it meant his own death.
:Enoch, how long have we been playing Forsaken in RT? With our children growing at such a rate I'm loosing track of time,: said Cain
{Your children well they are all thirteen months old. You had been playing the game for two months before all your wives and concubines got pregnant? You went into Forsaken on Sunday the twenty-third of September 2035, half-past ten in the morning. It is currently the tenth of October 2035 and it is three-fifteen in the morning.
{You have been playing, barring the period where the time sped up, for four hundred RT hours; which is sixteen and a half days in the real world. That is four thousand hours in the game or one hundred and sixty-six and a half days, or twenty-three weeks. All that time and you are still in the second game zone, and only a smidge closer to finding Vince and completing the game,} Enoch said.
Waiting for Circe to give birth added another four days RT or forty days GT. They spent the time training the new Amazons they rescued, and the town militia. Amazon squads Alpha1, Beta1 and Charley 1 carried out the training of the town militia.
Nithey and the rest of the VETS helped in the training of the new larger Amazon force. Toni told Cain they now had eight hundred and ten Amazons plus their support staff, Nithey and Cain came up with the plan to train them using a modern approach. They broke the training down into the standard marine training, which Nithey and Cain had experience of.
Since the new Amazons had a high physical and weapons skill levels, they skipped the first four weeks of basic training but took them to Mantabele for learning wet work and in-close fighting in the kill houses. The first piece of extra training for their original Amazons was building upon individual skills. Cain, Nithey and Mogastation assessed each Amazon, from the assessment each Amazon was given individual targets, such as improved sword work and handling. Better shield wielding and bashing, hand-to-hand fighting and basic camouflage techniques. They gave everyone training on handling the improved javelin and its increased throwing range.
They gave all the archers a mix of fast fire or improved distance shooting; getting better ranges. Mogastation and Boostoff selected twenty of the archers and took them for group training. There they taught them advanced camouflage techniques, advanced recon work and assassination skills.
After the individual skills, the Amazons moved on to the advanced skills, the VETS handed over all their knowledge, even skills the Amazons could not use here but who knew what would happen in the future. Using wooden mock-ups they taught the Amazons how to handle rifles and shoulder-launched missiles, everything a modern brigade in the real world would have.
Cain noticed the Amazons growing in confidence, he'd seen the same when troops moved beyond what they thought was possible, into areas where everything could be possible. They finished the Amazons training by having joiners make wooden mock ups of twenty-first century weapons. They drilled them mercilessly, every task and skill burned into muscle memory for future use. Cain knew when these women took the field they would reap a deadly toll.
Cain took over the nearest blacksmith's forge to the castle until the one being built for him was ready, improving his blacksmithing ability. Bethany worked on her enchantment skills while Sophie and Daphne increased their alchemy skills. Lesley worked in her own workshop making improved armour, not only for the eight hundred and ten Amazons but her sister-wives and Cain. She also made improved armour for Nithey and the VETS.
Finally, the day arrived when Circe gave birth to twin girls; she called them Tasha and Kalani. They followed the same steps as previous and took the children and their mother to Cybele's temple followed by Athena's temple and had their little girls blessed by the goddesses.
During the blessing service, Cybele spoke to Cain and all his wives, which included the close support Amazons present in the temple. She told them they needed to take the messages from both Athena and her to the country of Thessalonica and the city of Thessele. They had to travel overland and march the whole way.
Cain planned the route so they could pass three large towns on the way to Thessele, they also needed reminding to worship the gods. The reward Cybele told them would be the beginning of the quest which was more important for the game than any other. Cybele added they could only take the quest once Cain's youngest children, Tasha and Kalani were one.
Using the Travel-posts they trained the joint militia of Petrabele, Pyrgadikian and Mantabele as one large unit and practiced their skills together. Bethany made enchanted devices which allowed the militia officers to communicated with their peers. On the first birthday of Tasha and Kalani, Toni arranged for all of their children to gather in on
e place. Toni was moved seeing all the potential before her, all of Cain's progeny from his player wives and NPC concubines.
Two days later they marched out of Pyrgadikian and headed toward Thessele, a good two hundred miles considering they had to march first to Olimpiakena, then Vamvakena and finally Profhena. Cain estimated it would take fourteen days, assuming they had no issues. On paper it looked an easy quest, to remind the people to worship the gods or goddesses, and it went without any problems.
Cybele had Violetta return from Mantabele to help identify those people who would bring harm to their communities, such as bandits and worshippers of Erebus. The first two days of marching came and went with no problems. On the morning of the third day the two forward patrols observed and reported in while staying in the field, thanks to Bethany's enchantment work.
A large group of men, some on horses, were planning an ambush some three miles from Olimpiakena. Daphne told Cain and her sisters through the party chat. Looking at his HUD system time, Cain knew it was four hours of marching until the ambush site. Cain messaged the forward patrol and asked them for an accurate head count. Three quarters of an hour later they replied, saying,
"Sixty-seven men on horses and one hundred and eighty on foot all of these appear to be NPCs. There are three players running the ambush, one of them is a priest or cleric the other two are warriors who go with the priest everywhere."
Two hours from the ambush site, Cain split his force, sending a company of two hundred Amazons led by Daphne and Sophie out to the right-hand flank. He had Myrina and Bethany take another company of two hundred Amazons out to the left-hand flank. After the split, Cain called a halt for a thirty-minute break.
Bethany sent a message an hour later saying her company ambushed and killed twenty-four NPCs, all of them low-level bandits; a mix of rogues, rangers and warriors. Five minutes later Sophie replied saying they now have ten fine horses, minus their riders. These NPCs were part of the large ambush further ahead, probably pickets or patrols, Cain told Toni.
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